II in a Mac was the first Apple II emulator. The emulator ran on a 512K Mac and was released in November 1985. Initially it could run Apple II+ programs, but later evolved to include IIc and IIe software. This was long before the appearance of the 1991 Apple IIe Card for the Mac LC. The emulator was created by Computer Applications, Inc., based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company still seems to exist.

User Manual - 45pp (17mb; high resolution PDF)

"Emulator Lets Apple II Programs Run on a Mac" - This Infoworld article dated July 14, 1986 discusses version 2.0. Version 2.0 supported Apple IIe and IIc programs.

- Average performance was about half the speed of an Apple II.
- Extra Mac memory was used to emulate the Applied Engineering Ramworks II card.
- Text could be cut and pasted in either direction between the Mac and Apple II applications using the clipboard.
- Graphics could be cut and pasted from Apple II programs into Macpaint documents.
- Copy protected Apple II software does not work with the emulator.
- II-in-a-Mac had key disk copy protection but could be installed on a hard drive or double-sided Mac floppy disk.

The company also released a product called II-in-a-PC that allowed Apple II software to run on a PC. I haven't been able to locate any info on this product.

Watch a YouTube video of II in a Mac in action.
Version 2.5.3 of this program: download

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews (4)